Data is the New Oil | Jeremiah Fowler | WWHF San Diego 2022

From Breach to Research Career

Jeremiah Fowler describes himself as a data hunter, not a deep technical wizard. He entered security after a company data breach while he served as communications and PR director, learning data protection the hard way and later building an internal research center and hiring the researcher who reported the flaw.

Personal Path and Ukraine

His talk weaves career pivots—from Myspace glitter text and a failed music career through subprime-era finance—to moving to Kyiv with his Ukrainian partner. After Russia's invasion, he recounts a four-day wait at the Polish border with his daughter, reflecting on passport privilege amid refugee hardship.

Data as Valuable Asset

Fowler frames exposed data as today's oil: widely sought and routinely mishandled. He cites statistics that nearly 60% of businesses suffered a breach in three years, and argues firms typically invest in security only after an incident—joking that nobody runs a bug bounty until they need one.

Discovery Work in Practice

His Security Discovery work treats open-data hunting as investigative treasure seeking. Examples include railway-station Wi-Fi providers exposing visitor data. The session emphasizes how breach-driven awareness, researcher partnerships, and proactive data exposure hunting can shift organizational priorities.